In her July 10 message at the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber retells the story of the Merciful Samaritan. The message is timely, coming as it does on the heels of a week —…
Being lost, being found
We were out visiting for the church, Brother Tommy and I, two Baptists prepared to “win the lost for Christ,” on a steamy summer Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth. Brother Tommy was church deacon and I was a high school…
As racial healing seems elusive, New Baptist Covenant plans next summit
Former President Jimmy Carter, who has long put religion and racial reconciliation at the center of his life, is on a mission to heal a racial divide among Baptists and help the country soothe rifts that he believes are getting…
Baptists join diverse faith groups to support mosque-building effort
Religious freedom has become synonymous with division in the United States thanks to a rash of controversial state laws creating tension between conservative religious groups and LGBT rights. Corporations and gay rights groups have squared off against states and cities…
Jimmy Carter, seeing resurgence of racism, plans Baptist conference for unitybng
Former President Carter, who has long put religion and racial reconciliation at the center of his life, aims to heal a racial divide among Baptists and help the country soothe rifts he believes are getting worse.
How a résumé-driven mentality is crippling our culture
I come from a long line of folks who cannot abide The Big Head. I don’t know if this malady is well known north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but down here in the South, everybody knows about The Big Head….
Harriet Tubman ousts Andrew Jackson in change for a $20
The U.S. Treasury is proposing to replace the slaveholding Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, the former slave and abolitionist.
Donald Trump’s rise shows religion is losing its political power
The most surprising aspect about Trump’s solid appeal among Republican primary voters may be what it says about the waning place of religion in American politics.
Theology schools, facing lean times, look to one another and the Web
Seminaries and divinity schools are in a period of unprecedented experimentation. Schools are merging; or joining together, across religious lines, in interfaith consortiums; or moving online.
Momentum to remove Confederate symbols slows or stops
When a white supremacist killed nine black churchgoers in South Carolina last summer, among the responses was a drive to remove publicly displayed Confederate symbols around the country. Now that movement has stalled.
Death, the Prosperity Gospel and Me
Durham, N.C. – ON a Thursday morning a few months ago, I got a call from my doctor’s assistant telling me that I have Stage 4 cancer. The stomach cramps I was suffering from were not caused by a faulty…
A necessary heretic
Last week, the long-awaited new book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates finally hit shelves. Its release was moved up from October to July in light of recent events yet again raising the ongoing concerns of race in…